


Our Mortal Sister

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen, The Fates - Freeform, Tweaking Greek Mythology, gorgons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-04-26
Updated: 2005-04-26
Packaged: 2017-10-06 19:24:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Gorgons were a Trio. There were two Immortal sisters, Euryale and Stheno, and one mortal sister, Medusa. Medusa had long since been slain, and history forgot what happened to her immortal sisters. This is part of their history.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Mortal Sister

**Author's Note:**

> For the LJ community "darkones."

One – Finding

 

We begged Clotho to find us a sister. After the horrid death of our beloved sister, we could not exist as Two. We were Three, we were the Gorgons. We couldn't be alone. It wasn't that Euryale and I didn't get along, it was just that we didn't know how to be Two instead of Three. We had never been apart, we three, and it was unnatural.

I sound so calm now, remembering all this. I wasn't calm at all then, I wasn't nearly as silent and strong. I remember screaming at the Fates,_ "How could you? You are Three! How could make us merely Two?!"_

Clotho took pity on us, thankfully. Perhaps it was that she was one of Three, perhaps she had regretted what her sisters had done to us. We had been innocent, yet they had allowed a so-called hero to come and kill our beautiful baby sister, our mortal sister. I don't know if she could ever have imagined the pain of it, waking to find our sister's headless body by our side, some thief having cut off her head and stolen it away.

"I have all the threads here," she said, stretching her fingers wide. The threads were thin and silvery, the stuff to weave the webs of Fate. "Let me find someone appropriate for you, someone that won't be missed, so no one will come looking for her."

Oh yes. No one to come looking for our sister, to take her away from us again. No, we couldn't bear the pain of that, we couldn't. We'd rather forsake our immortality altogether than to bear the pain of losing another sister.

We sobbed with relief when she brought us the little girl. She had wild red hair and stern gray eyes. Her Scottish brogue was a charm, once she began talking. I remember that so clearly, her first words to us. But then, she had been silent and still, almost like the cursed statues that lay outside our cave.

"I had to cross the years to find her," Clotho said cheerfully when she returned. The girl was hidden carefully in her cloak. "The village she had been in had been destroyed. It's a massacre, Atropos was most busy there. Those silly mortals, burning a village to the ground to try and find her. She's a witch, and a very strong one."

"You brought her here?" Euryale asked. Her voice was soft as ever, and she almost reached out to hold our new sister.

"Patience, my dear," Clotho chided. The smile on her face was sweet, kind. She was the Maiden, after all, she was meant to be kind. She was the breath of fresh life. She understood us, she knew our need to be Three. "Let me charm her first."

We kept our eyes shut tight until Clotho could work magic on the girl that would allow her to resist our powers. That she was a strong witch wasn't in question. She would have to be, to become one of us. Her power would have to grow. She would have to be charmed against our power, and given power of her own to become like us.

When she began talking, she seemed wise beyond her few years. That and her gray eyes made us name her Minerva.

 

Two - Leaving

 

Perhaps because she had been born mortal, it was always destined for Minerva to leave us. I had never mentioned it as Minerva grew up, tall and strong. We taught her the elemental magicks, and watched her play in the style of mortal magic. We had retreated into our cave many times when others drew near, hearing her laughter. Minerva hated to kill, hated knowing her gaze would turn life into stone.

"But it's not our fault," Euryale would murmur. She was like our mother most. Ceto had been soft spoken, unable to resist anyone, least of all her brother. Euryale looked like her most when she was sitting and brushing Minerva's hair. "It's how we were born. It's what we are. The great gods in the sky are as they are because that is how they were born. When the threads of Fate are spun, you live the life you are given."

I wish Euryale was less like our mother and more like our father, cunning and silent, waiting for the right time to pounce. I am neither; I am a coward unable to face the truth of what I knew was about to happen.

"But I wasn't always this way. I remember the Inquisition. I remember them burning the village, I remember having a mother and father. I _remember."_

Euryale looked helplessly at Minerva. "But you're our sister, Minerva! What would we do without you? We can't be left alone!"

I kept my face turned away, though I could feel Minerva's gaze on my back. I pretended to still be at my weaving, as though I could be Lachesis and weave her permanently into our lives. I pretended not to feel her questions, pretended not to have the answers.

"Can't I be mortal and not turn others to stone? Can't I lead an ordinary life?"

"My dear... You're a Gorgon. You're far from ordinary."

"I remember being Scottish," Minerva had shouted, jumping to her feet. "I remember playing with other children. I remember them not being stone, not screaming when they saw me, I _remember!"_

I was crying silently. I was always the silent one, though I had been the one to buckle and ask Clotho for help. Euryale had been too broken.

"Stheno," Minerva asked, voice rising in pain. "Why don't you speak? Why don't you beg me to stay a Gorgon like Euryale does?"

I turned to her then, the tears fresh on my cheeks. "Sister, I could never deny you. But you hurt us so, you wound us. Why would you wish to leave us?"

"I never said...."

She didn't complete the thought. She didn't need to. We all knew this was where her thoughts had turned, leaving the Gorgons and becoming a mere mortal again. Lachesis could weave her back into the mortal realm. Lachesis could replace the life Minerva thought we had stolen. I couldn't speak, and Euryale could only cry. We were no more and no less than what we had always been, and wouldn't hurt our sister any more than she was hurting already. We led her to the Fates, we let Lachesis work her magic so that Minerva could return to her mortal life and be Minerva McGonagall again.

We had only wanted another sister. We had only wanted someone to love.

It hurts so much more when they leave if you know they still love you back.

 

Three - Ending

 

We stripped ourselves of our powers when the war began. Euryale had given in to her urges to visit Minerva now and then, but I had refused. I had to be the strong one. Someone had to look after our home, to make sure no more heroes descended into our timeless realm. The last one had made such a muck of things, I kept saying. Euryale would always look away, lips tight with pain and silent remarks. I didn't mean to be cruel, but I knew it drove her to find Minerva. Through the years, Euryale was my window into Minerva's life. Euryale would sit in the bedchamber, waiting for classes to be over, for Minerva to return with tales of the students, the world around her, the life she had led since she left us. Minerva went to school with other children, had her romances, her triumphs and failures. She grew up all over again, a mere mortal, and became a teacher to other mere mortals. Euryale visited her faithfully, and came back from each visit brimming with stories to tell me.

I always refused to go. I didn't want to see how well she did without us, without the power to turn others to stone.

But when the war began, I could deny it no longer. I brewed the potions and said the incantations to divest us of our powers to turn others to stone. We retained our other powers, for we still were the children of gods. It's hard to remove everything, and some powers are more easily lost than others. I learned the incantations and potions too late, long after Minerva had left us. If I had known them, would she have stayed?

Because she lived on, Euryale had said we were never a Two. Our mortal sister had merely gone adventuring, she would say. Our mortal sister was exploring the world beyond our ken.

We exited our realm together. I must have gotten the timing wrong, because we had entered Minerva's world in the middle of a long and bloody battle. Part of Hogwarts castle was in ruins, still smoking from the spells thrown at it. There were children on the field alongside grown men and women. I had meant to arrive at Hogwarts to speak with Minerva, to forgive her for her desires, to begin again. Our sister had grown old, and I didn't want resentment to lie between us. I didn't realize my timing was off, I didn't realize there was so little time left to the war. It had taken me too long to brew the potions.

I found her first, lying on the battlefield with a hole in her belly. She lay bleeding into the ground of her beloved Scotland, and I began to wail. At the keening sound, Minerva opened her eyes and smiled at me.

"Ah, Stheno. I'm so glad you're here."

"I'm so sorry," I sobbed. "I shouldn't have kept you, I should have let you go when you wanted, I should have let you live your own life."

Minerva grasped my hand tightly. "But you did, my sister." She smiled gently at my startled sob, and squeezed my hand. "You did let me go. I'm sorry it hurt us all so much, but I can't say I'm sorry for it. Did Euryale tell you? The wonderful children, the stories? I've had such a chance at life, Stheno. If not for you asking Clotho for a sister, I would have died. I wouldn't have had this chance at all."

"But you're _dying,_ Minerva," I sobbed. "I'll lose you all over again."

Minerva's breath rattled in her chest. "Stheno, Euryale. I would never leave you alone, never. I found you another sister, one to replace me."

Euryale gasped. "Minerva, oh no, you can't leave us yet."

"She has red hair, red like mine used to be when you first found me. Her family... they've all been destroyed by this war, and she's been through so much. I want you to take care of her. I think she's worthy of you both, worthy to be your sister."

"Find her, Euryale," I choked. I watched my sister run off into the wild battlefield, taking care not to trip over the dead and dying. She was full of small graces like that.

I heard Minerva's breath shudder, her gaze move to over my shoulder. "No, Atropos, not yet," she wheezed. "Please, a moment more, until Euryale has found her...."

I turned and looked into Atropos' dark eyes. "For the sake of the Trinity," I sobbed, seeing the silver shears in the old woman's hands.

The shears were still.

I cradled Minerva into my arms. "My sister, my dear mortal sister, I love you, I've always loved you, even when I never visited," I whispered into her ears. My words were fevered, as fast as I dared speak. I would never have this chance again. "I greedily collected the stories from Euryale, I kept them close to my heart, every word of news of you. I followed this world to make sure you were safe, I wanted you to have the life you deserved."

Minerva smiled at me weakly. Her hair had been brown when Lachesis wove her back into this reality, but it was now gray and streaked with mud. She touched my face, still young, still unlined and soft. "I know. Euryale told me."

I could hear Euryale shouting in the distance, and we all turned to look. She was carrying a wounded teenager, a girl with bright red hair and a broken arm. Euryale was running as fast as she dared, bringing the girl with her.

"You'll love Ginny, too," Minerva whispered to me. Her voice was weak, no more than an exhaled breath. "Her name is Ginevra Weasley. She's as strong as you are, as kind as Euryale is. She's a worthy sister, a worthy addition to the Gorgons."

Euryale knelt beside Minerva, Ginny cradled in her arms. "She's another strong witch," Euryale said, hearing the end of Minerva's speech. "We'll all be such good sisters."

Minerva smiled, and exhaled her last breath.

I made a soft, shocked sound, and looked up.

Atropos had shut her shears over Minerva's silver thread. She nodded at us perfunctorily, and motioned for Clotho to give us Ginny's thread.

I held onto it tightly, and looked at our new mortal sister. I bowed my head over Minerva's still form. "Thank you, dear sister. We'll always remember you."

The end.


End file.
